Gingrich breaks with GOP lawmakers over cuts to medical research

In his statement to Research!America, Gingrich points out that he tripled NIH funding when he served as Speaker of the House. He also vowed to "continue to recognize the vital importance of a robust NIH."

House Republicans, by contrast, slashed NIH funding by $1.6 billion — about 5 percent below the president's request — in the spending bill they approved in February. During debt-ceiling negotiations with the Senate, they finally agreed to a more modest cut of $260 million through the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

The spending bill for fiscal year 2012, meanwhile, calls for a 1 percent increase in NIH funding, for a total of $30.6 billion.

Gingrich also used the voter education initiative to reiterate his support for greater investment in brain research to combat Alzheimer's and other diseases.

Overall Gingrich's answers to the questionnaire track closely with Obama's, except on the issue of embryonic stem cell research.

While Obama said he was "committed to supporting responsible stem cell research now, and in the future," Gingrich flat-out opposes using stem cell lines from discarded embryos.

"I strongly support adult stem cell research," Gingrich wrote. "I will oppose at every turn any process of destroying embryos."